Sunday, September 30, 2012

The population of Pakistani Diaspora is more than the
population of many countries. There are approximately 7 million people living
overseas.

These people include world class professionals. Many doctors,
engineers, business managers, etc. are working in different countries. Pakistan
has world’s best doctors. They are serving in almost all countries of the
world.

Pakistan
has some best centers of higher education although they are few in numbers.
These institutes include Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of science and technology,
NUST, NED, IBA, LUMS, etc.

Expatriates serving in United
States, United
Kingdom are entrepreneurs, executives and
other successful professional while those serving in Middle East
are generally laborers. Rich expatriates are living overseas with their
families while those less affluent are living alone. Pakistan
receives enormous remittances especially from Middle East
countries as expatriates from these countries send money to their families.
Middle Eastern countries do not allow naturalization.

In European countries and in United
States, it is estimated that half of
Pakistanis have received their nationality. There are second and third
generations of Pakistanis living there. These Pakistanis have learned a lot
about foreign cultures and are increasingly intermingling with the local people
from those countries.

Pakistan
can export more man power to Middle Eastern countries as well as other
countries facing shortage of manpower. There are many countries whose work
force is shrinking owing to ageing of their population like Italy,
Australia etc. and Pakistanis can benefit from opportunities in those
countries. Although Pakistanis have to face stiff competition from china and India
as both have huge population and have good standard of education. The
increasing competition can only be faced by increasing the higher education
spending as well as excess of higher education to more people.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Saltflow, inc. is a conglomerate and has stakes in diverse
fields. Saltflow was founded in 2005 by Arif Ayub, a Pakistani national. This
group is based in Dubai, UAE.

Saltflow has annual revenues in excess of $570 million annually. Group is involved in a number of fields including
construction industry, trade and retail industry, and technology industry.
Group has expanded its presence to North America through
acquisitions.

Group’s technology business is heavily centered in Russia
and controls internet companies primarily targeted at mobile and financials
solutions for consumers.

In North America group has stakes in
retail and trade sector. Group has invested huge amounts in retail brands and
is expecting good returns.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Asia pacific has surpassed North
America in largest number of millionaires. According to the Asia
pacific wealth report 2012, a product of capgemini and RBC wealth management,
there are 3.37 million millionaires in the region. This number surpasses that
of North America, the land of largest economy.

According to the report the total combined wealth of all
millionaires in the region is 10.7 trillion us dollars.

The report attributed this growth in number of millionaires
to two factors.

healthy
GDP (gross domestic product) growth

strong
base of entrepreneurship

In past few years Asia pacific has
grown significantly. The world’s fastest growing economies are china and India
both situated in the region and both are growing significantly for more than a
decade. According to the report Asia pacific economy,
excluding Japan,
is expected to grow 6.1 percent in 2012 and 6.6 percent in 2013. These high
figures are expected to be driven by growth in Indian and Chinese economies.

This high growth number of millionaires has led to high
demand for wealth management services. And wealth management companies are
facing acute shortage of wealth management professionals.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Sadeq Sayeed is a prominent Pakistani banker and electrical
engineer. Presently he is serving London
based hedge fund firm, Metage Capital Limited, as its chairman.

Sayeed was born in Pakistan
and went to United States
for studies. He took admission in Massachusetts Institute of Technology
undergraduate programme in economics with concentration in electrical
engineering. Later he also got his master in finance from the MIT.

He started his active professional life at the age of 23 by
joining World Bank. His assignments in World Bank include working as research
associate and internal consultant.

Later in 2000 he joined Nomura group, a Japanese financial
conglomerate. Before joining Nomura he also served Credit Suisse First Boston,
an investment banking division of Credit Suisse group.

At retirement from Nomura, he is reported to have received
severance package amounting to 34 million us dollars.

In Pakistan
he along with shaukat tareen, former Pakistani finance minister, led consortium
which acquired controlling stakes in Saudi pak commercial bank. Later Saudi pak
commercial bank was renamed as Silk Bank Limited.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Hundi or hawala is an important element in economic life of
many Pakistanis and Indians. Nearly 900 million US
dollars are remitted every month to Pakistan
through this informal system of money transfer. This system evolved centuries
ago and now has been established on modern principles.

So what hawala (hundi) is?

hawala (hundi) is a system of transferring value without actual
transfer of money from one place to another. Hawala payment works on the basis
of trust.

It works when one person wants to send money to another
person, at another place. He tells a secret word (password) to payee, in
another location. Then goes to hundi agent, gives him money and tells him same
secret word (password). Hundi agent tells amount as well as password to his
other office, at another location, where value is to be transferred. This other
office makes payment to the person who tells password. Now the payee got the
payments and one office has become debtor of another.

Same process will be repeated between two offices when
transfer is to be made and after setting off each others liabilities, balance
amount will be transferred through actual cash delivery between offices.

Hawala/hundi system remains an impediment in increasing foreign exchange
reserves of the country and must be discouraged. This can be done by making
banking channel more efficient. Using this system for money transfer in a country is illegal, but it can be used inside country for transfer of value from one city to another. Mobile banking also uses this method of money transfer.